Democratic strategist James Carville struggled Tuesday to put a positive spin on a Donald Trump presidency — saying "shaky" was the most optimistic word he could use.

"If this thing goes where it looks like, where I hope it doesn't go, people gotta understand, this election is gonna have consequences like you can't believe," Carville told Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC.

"Donald Trump now has the authority of an election behind him," he added. "It's the biggest thing that you can have in a democracy.

"This is not an antiseptic event. He has the validation of the people.

"He said what he was running on. It was pretty clear what he was offering."

Carville added "I'm distraught about the entire thing.

"I feel terrible for a lot of my friends," he said. "But what is here tonight is hard to put into perspective.

"We're going to have one party ruling this country — and Obamacare is done. Dodd-Frank is done.

"The diplomatic and financial consequences. I'm looking at the futures. They're going to go further. It's hard to imagine what this means.

"There's no sense in sugar-coating it to people," he said. "If you just look at what it is, I hate to say it, but I hope, please God, let me be wrong."